Kohler Bathtub, clogs every two months

[RiverdaleWG]

Hello,
Last year I installed a new Kohler bathtub, along with all new Kohler hardware.
The drain gets clogged with hair every two-three months.
When I take the trap apart, I see the spring that contacts the drain lever is covered with hair, etc. This spring pushes down on the lever and holds the drain open.Once I clean it out it is fine again for a few more months.

The spring at rest lays right in the path of the drain water and catches all the junk.
Is this normal and expected? Is there a different design drain that I should change to ? The screw-in type seems to be a good solution, but I wouldn't think there should be a design concept idea that would be so flawed.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.


Thanks

 

[Redwood]

That is a typical problem for pop up style tub drains. I suppose it is better that the hair catches there where you can get it than further down the drain where it takes a plumber with a snake.

Gerber makes one of the best IMHO

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Sincraft]

Tell the long hairs to cut their hair and quit brushing their hair in the shower!

Yes, same problem here. Don't use a snake as it's all in the drain area.

If this were not a pop up, I would suggest that maybe your pull style drain was not all the way open / not properly setup and configured thus, the drain opening was limited and thus, a bit of hair would cause the problem.

But as the other said, the drain power is already limited by the pop up spring mechanism, and this is exasperated as the spring collects 'gunk' and hair making the 'clog' a reality.

My suggestion, look for another mechanism that utilizes less space, tell the long hairs to quit brushing their hair in the shower or at the very least, dont let the hair wash down and be sure to clean the trap after every shower.

 

[tomcat22]

Saw this just in time. I was planning on using a Kohler drain (K-7214) with a cable for the pop-up drain. This was so I could aim it off center (to miss a joist) and match up to the overflow (using some 45's on the vertical section) as suggested by Terry. So should I rethink this and use a standard drain? It would mean moving the tub further in to the bathroom area, taking up that floor space. If this would prevent a persistent clogging, I'd make that sacrifice. I have a daughter with long hair that would be using the tub (along with a son with "kind of" long hair

BTW, upon removing my old tub with a standard drain, I found a sizeable clog in the the horizontal drain section composed of hair and other gunk. That would explain the slow draining I've experienced ever since I bought the house seven years ago!! So even conventional drains are not immune to this.

 

[Terry]

For hair, just pick up a screen that covers the drain.
This prevents the hair from entering the drain.
All the hardware stores have them.

Gotta have the long hair.